Michael: Rules of (Broken) Thumbs

The white butterflies
Sprinkle the morning meadow
Like nimble angels.

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Initially, I was going to write about how clever I was going to be in my next stateside race by breaking two rules of thumb when it comes to ultras, but those plans have been subverted by another rule of thumb.

The two rules I had planned on breaking were; 1 - Don’t go out hard, and 2 - Run your own race.

My reasoning for going against these rules in The Santa Barbara Endurance Marathon in July was that the first half of the course is predominantly uphill, so if you can get that section out of the way while moving closer toward the ocean as the day heats up, I’d hope to beat the heat and be heading downhill toward the cool ocean after doing most of the major inland hill battles.

Secondly, a half marathon is going to be run on the second section of the marathon course and was scheduled to start 2 hours after the marathon. If I could complete the first half of the marathon before that race started I could use some of the half marathoners for pacers; basically using their fresh legs as a boost to lift my energy and pace.

But that’s all been subverted by another racing rule of thumb; check the event website now and then. This morning I noticed that the half marathon and marathon race starts have been moved up to coincide with the 100 mile and 100k start at 7a.m. That means most of the marathoners should be well on the downhill side of the course before the heat of the day comes in, and all most all of the half marathoners will be finished long before any marathoners get close to the finish.

So strike breaking rule of thumb #2. It may still pay to go out a bit stronger than usual and get the long uphill sections out of the way while it’s still nice and cool then use the long gravity friendly sections of the second half to pick up tired legs toward the finish, but I wish the race director wouldn’t have made those time changes. Now I’m going to have to be even more careful and, without as many runners out in front of me, try to remember another rule of thumb that I recently overlooked; To avoid getting lost stop and look around when there’s a questionable choice as to which direction to go.